Private Cast a Light

[Rakaan Horne]

CSAUS:-
Darth Daiara

He raced across the stars in search of a start to an end of the war.

The Jedi adored their students, valued them and their futures. Even if the Sith had been brutal and barbaric, it stood to reason there was some sense of... fondness between them. Some of them, the few able to withstand the desire to murder their own student, that was. Given the ambitious nature of the Brotherhood of the Maw, there was no doubt a need for successors. Rakaan surmised, at least. He wondered, would a Sith Lord come for their Acolyte the same as a Jedi Master would for their Padawan?

ISB contacts alerted Rakaan of the latest addition to their database, and the once-Jedi made his move on an incomplete file. On yet another mission of his own, an uninformed Imperial command was not privy to the details of his sudden departure from Imperial space. Neither had Rakaan ever intended to inform them, should that mission be a failure. He landed on the surface of Csaus, his droid companion within comms range whilst Rakaan scoured as much of the system as he could in search of Aradia.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Aradia's trip from lol had been a grim one. The mining colonies were harsh, desolate places full of hunger and exhaustion. She knew them well. She loathed returning, but she needed a rare metal sometimes found on asteroids such these.

Lol had yielded nothing; Csaus, however, had proved to be much more fruitful. She left the sale nearly a million credits lighter, a number that could have fed the colonies for years, freed thousands of slaves, or sustained her for near a lifetime.

She wondered if Vesta would even care enough to ask.

The red head pulled her hood up, walking unbothered through the dusty metallic streets. If she was the vendor, she would have already tipped off the undercity to have her jumped before she made it back, but she walked with a relaxed drawl towards the ship she had arrived on, to an untrained eye-- inviting trouble.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CSAUS:-
Darth Daiara

In the heart of the Maw, there was red blood; not a blackened, thick substance that seemed more akin to a foul rot. It beat, and the streets ran red with those ensnared beneath their rule - no scant few smiles found themselves offered to the few that met his face with their own, and with little chance to learn of life inside these borders, Rakaan continued on with his own hood raised.

For some time, Rakaan followed the one that matched the minimal identifiers. But with each moment, each small chance of a stolen look, a frown fell over his face as much as an annoyed smirk directed towards himself. He expected... more, someone more akin to the embodiment of the horrors of the Sith.

If trouble awaited, the man single-minded in his focus had been left dangerously unaware.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Danger didn't come. She approached her ship door and paused.

A glance back showed the child-like framing of her face. She looked feeble, innocent even, but she walked freely under the name of her master and the MAW. Alright, so maybe Darth Mori 's ambition did have some... benefits.

She turned back, her shoulders dropping as she keyed the door for entry. The fresh air and warm lights washed over her, pushing back her hood. She squinted and stepped inside, throwing her case haphazardly on a bin...

 

[Rakaan Horne]

CSAUS:-
Darth Daiara

He first walked no more than a touch faster, then even faster until it became a slow run, then a sudden fash in those final few metres. Rakaan had moved with a certain trained swiftness, yet with a brutish entrance onto the vessel all the same - his shoulder lowered and intended to crash into Aradia, to see her knocked over and enable an immediate advantage to the Imperial.

His own hood fell from his head in the act, and the clothes underneath had sine been revealed. His lightsaber on his hip along with it.

"Aradia Pavanos." He said with a hint of uncertainty. It was the right one, surely, Rakaan pleaded with himself.

 

[Darth Daiara]

An object crashed into her moments before the hiss of the closing door assured her she was secure.

Aradia skidded across the ground, adrenaline erupting in her as she coiled and turned like a cat falling through air. She had learned hard lessons on the dangers of being pinned down. She twisted onto her back and wedged her feet into his gut, kicking with all her might to buy her space. She slide several feet away from the attacker, faltering only when he said her name with little conviction.

Did she know him? Sentimentality was shattered by a sudden eruption of heat and flames. The force sang with the metallic twang of the darkside as the blaring heat engulf him.

By the time it cleared, she was gone. Wild pattering footsteps sounded off down the hall.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

He stumbled backwards with the sudden crash of a foot into his stomach. He folded in two as an outstretched hand found a doorframe to latch onto and hold himself still, about to recover in full when his vision was soon flooded with flames. In defense, Rakaan threw his other hand out in front of him and parted the sea of fire around him, even as the heat licked at his flesh and the thin layer of cloth that shielded his frame.

"Stop!" His voice called out after the sound of footsteps once the roar of fire subsided.

Rakaan followed her with caution, his eyes scanned back and forth for doors, even vents. "I'm not looking to hurt you, kid." He said to the air, a clear lack of stealth on his part.

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

Kid.

She managed an eyeroll as she lifted a deceptively light floor grate and jumped inside. It was lighter than all the rest, sounded slightly different when you walked across it with a heavy heel, but Aradia didn't expect him to pay attention to something like that.

From here she could access nearly anything. The exit, the flight deck, even the cargo. It was why she had chosen the ship. Just as there was a reason this bleeding-heart jedi had come to her. She had her suspicions.

"He's not here," she told him, her voice echoing strangely around intersection of two halls. It would be hard to pin her location down here, which was why she had waited for this exact moment to address him. She pressed into a pillar underneath him, covered by the shadows of the grate as she studied him.

Which one of Zaavik's friends was this.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

He continued to advance further into the vessel, no amount of voices stalled his efforts to search and cover what few bases were available. Rakaan turned his head round and round, as if it had bee on a swivel, all with a tilt of his head and a focused set of features cast over his face. "Zaavik?" The Imperial sighed, "Yeah, I'm not the business of wayward strays. Keep him."

There was an alarming amount of sincerity to his voice.

Rakaan focused his efforts in the Force, an attempt to reach out into it and locate the Sith apprentice in it. She could see his face, unshielded by the hood of the cloak since their brief connection, with his brown hair and his dull blue eyes.

"How does a Jedi Master and Sith acolyte come to be friends, anyways? Is it friends, or more partners?"

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

"He was a knight," she snuffed, the distinction clearly ruffling her.

She bit her tongue and gave him nothing further, her eyes narrowing under cut of his chin. If he wasn't here for Zaavik, then what could possibly want. Her hand reached for her hilt for the first time.

If they come after me, I will kill them.

I know.
​

The faint memory did little to absolve her as she considered the jedi above her. They were often vulnerable to their own sparks of consciousness, but that didn’t mean he had come here without a reason. The force flared with faint warnings of danger. She tightened her gripe on her blade and pressed forward.

"Maybe he just saw through your orders lies. I would have thought the GA had bigger fish to fry than forgotten Sith Empire fragments. Getting desperate, are we?" She stalled.

She waited until his head was turned and slid from one framed beam towards another. She was nearly under him now.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

"Either or." Rakaan muttered to no one with a dismissive wave thrown towards a vacant room.

He meandered backwards and forwards, from side to side, all across the room with his hands settled on his waist. The former-Jedi let loose a brief series of muted chuckles that came in the form of amused huffs, even as his brow narrowed somewhat with the beginnings of a result from his afforded focus; "You think I'm one of them," he stated coolly, "I'm not, but I'm also not so much of a coward that I join the Sith either."

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

Silence.

It spoke volumes.

"Well now you're making no sense," she accused, the echo less pronounced the closer they both drifted. She seemed to not notice this, a final step forward taken to place her within lunging distanced to the center of the intersection. She braced herself and gave him one chance.

"Who sent you?"

 

[Rakaan Horne]

He connected dots where there were none. Rakaan remained half as informed as he should have been, if even, with a lack of self control that sent him out into the field before it was time. ISB could have had a mission of their own intended for Pavanos for all he knew, one blown and busted with his sudden interference. Such was the case when it concerned an Imperial Knight, whether in an official capacity or not.

But as that caution of an echo in the Force sounded off more and more, Rakaan felt as if he honed in her location. So much so that after her final three words were uttered, his eyes turned downwards and stared into the vent beneath him - into it, through it, to the one that shielded themselves behind it.

"I sent myself," the Imperial answered in an admission of the truth, "I'm not after you. Just your master."

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

The force flared with that same fiery signature. Aradia lunged, features contorted fiercely. Her saber went through the very place he stood. It thrummed threateningly, the blue heat turning the metal to lava in an instant.

 

[Rakaan Horne]

In a blur, his booted foot shuffled backwards across the metallic interior. In place of it, a blue saber carved a hole. Left to become no more than molten slag, more viscous liquid than solid object now, and in response Rakaan's eyes narrowed on the hole beneath him some more. His own saber left his belt and entered his hand in the meantime, but no white blade emerged from the hilt just yet.

"That's not a game you want to play." His tone soured with his features, "Here I thought the Sith were always looking for a chance to take one another out."

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

"Clearly you don't know a damn thing," she told him, pacing around the dripping hole of metal. Her gaze never left him, her neck craning as she moved back and forth.

Back and forth.

"She's remained out of this all," she lied, peddling past truths as current facts. "What do you care about a fallen Emperors kin? The Sith Empire is over, decimated, your people saw to that. Why can't you just let it be?"

 

[Rakaan Horne]

It was with a furrowed brow, one found to be in such disbelief, that Rakaan almost recoiled with the tilt of his head. He held his silence for but a moment with skepticism, his haste to arrive on scene had been to his detriment all of a sudden. But facts were facts, and there were more than a few that the Imperial had still recalled.

"In place of the Sith Empire there is a barbaric horde of marauders, all led by Darth Mori now - your master." He said as if trying to convince her, "Her connection to Darth Carnifex, whatever that may be, means nothing to me. Like I said, I'm not here for you..."

He breathed out a sigh with yet another dismissive wave of his hand, "You're just some kid."

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

Chit.

Chit.

Chit.

Aradia knew it was only a matter of time until Vesta's move brought targets to their back. It was arrogant of her to think only the underworld here would be aware. Her gut sank. This wasn't gonna end well for anyone.

"I'm not a kid," she snapped. "And you're fucking stupid. What do you think-- you're gonna take down the sith single handedly?" A bitter laugh caught in her chest. She shook her head and looked away, grimacing. All of it, all of it reminded her of one bitter thing. Zaavik use to do this exact same thing. She sighed and closed her saber in her hand. "You're gonna get yourself killed. Give it up."

"Get out."

 

[Rakaan Horne]

"If that's what it takes," he answered with brazen confidence, "Someone has to do it. If the Jedi cannot make themselves do what is needed, then I will." He seemed so certain in all that he said, obvious in the tone of his voice to the stance that Rakaan maintained. His hands rest on his waist, his saber beneath them, and his features maintained all the seriousness this world had on offer.

"Tell me where she is, or where to find her. You don't have to be afraid, she won't find out and have the chance to kill you." Rakaan sounded almost sympathetic, "She'll be long dead by the time she gets the chance."

Darth Daiara

 

[Darth Daiara]

It was Aradia's turn to laugh. "Why would I do that?" A pulse of the force lifted the false floor grate. A stronger push off the ground sent her leaping gracefully out of it.

"And you think I'm the stupid one." He could see her clearly for the first time, ropy scares poking out of the edge of her clothing. She took a single step towards him, her saber unlit but ready in her hand.

"They tell you, what, that we're the monsters? That we use this power instead of yours and suddenly that's it? I'll betray anyone I ever loved." She shook her head, her lips twitching at the ludicrisy of it all. "That's convenient for those putting sabers in your hands, don't you think?

"They lied to you, jedi." She took another step forward, reclaiming the ground that made up her home. "I'll say it to you once. Let it go. They won't care if you live or die, they aren't worth shit."